The much-awaited Asia Cup 2022 is all set to begin on August 27 in United Arab Emirates (UAE). While the tournament will be underway with the inaugural match between hosts Sri Lanka taking on Afghanistan. The talk of the town has been the epic battle between eternal rivals India and Pakistan on Sunday (August 28). With the high-profile clash just around the corner, there have been many speculations made by the former cricketers and experts ahead of the encounter.
Former India cricketer Wasim Jaffer, during an interaction with ESPNcricinfo, was of the opinion that Pakistan skipper Babar Azam will score more runs than India captain Rohit Sharma.
“I think Rohit will have more impactful runs. But I feel Babar will make more runs”, Jaffer said.
Rohit is only behind Sachin Tendulkar when it comes to the highest run-getters in the Asia Cup. The veteran opening batter has accumulated 883 runs in 26 innings in the multi-nation tournament. The Indian skipper is just 89 runs behind the legend and this edition of the tournament could see him break the record.
Rohit has been pivotal to India’s fearless brand of cricket that the Men in blue adopted post the 2021 World Cup exit. He has taken on himself to provide his side brisk starts. The Indian opener will look to do the same in the clash against Pakistan. The ace batter though does not boast an impressive T20I record against the Men in Gre having scored only 70 runs from 8 matches, he will be pivotal to India’s chances going forward.
On the other hand, Babar has been in a rich vein across formats. In his last 10 limited over games (only one T20I), the Pakistan captain has scored six-half-centuries and three centuries. He is currently the number one batter in the world in both ODIs and T20Is. The Pakistan batter has been the pillar of the batting lineup for the last few years and will have a critical role to play in the tournament.
The last time both the Asian Giants collided was in the T20 World Cup last year. In that encounter, the Men in Green registered a clinical 10-wicket win over India. This win was the first win for Pakistan against the Men in Blue in the World Cup fixtures. Babar, Mohammed Rizwan, and Shaheen Afridi were the chief architects of the historic win.
India and Pakistan are placed in Group A along with Hong Kong. The second group consists of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. India is the defending champion coming into the tournament.
